Term 1 Over

This week marks a new term for the school year. I have been teaching for over two months now and even though it's feeling more and more real with each lesson, I still catch myself thinking I'm not actually a teacher yet. However I do realize that I most certainly am by now; I'm just waiting for the first time I have to fill out a form where I can put "teacher" under occupation instead of "student." I'm sure that will be a big day.

After two and a half months of teaching I have learned a lot about myself both professionally and personally. I have also learned, or at least heard, all numbers up to twenty in Chinese, and a select few Chinese curse words as well. And most importantly, I have learned a lot about teaching international students. I know now that a lot of things work with ESL students and also, a lot of things don't (and yes I learned that the hard way as you can imagine). I am by no means an expert on teaching English language learners, but I feel a lot more knowledgable now than I did when we started school in September and I bet I'll be even better by June. It makes me realize that this is a profession in which I can expect to learn something new every single day. It's very exciting to think about how my teaching style will evolve throughout my career and even how I will teach differently by the end of this year alone.

What's also exciting is to think about how I can improve on things for next year. I boarded the plane in August 90% sure that I would work in Taiwan for two years; however I did only have a one year contract so I knew there was a possibility I would only stay for one. After one term though, I am absolutely positive I will be working here next year. Both professionally and personally I am very happy in Taiwan and am very excited to start next year with experience under my belt and actually know what's going on!